Conor P. McGowan, Ph.D.
Assistant Leader and Assistant Research Professor
USGS, Alabama Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences,
Auburn University
Auburn, AL 36849-5418

cmcgowan@usgs.gov

cmcgowan@auburn.edu
Ph: 334 844 9231

Research interests

My work focuses on conservation and management decision support science. I work primarily on endangered species and birds, especially shorebirds, using the tools of population and ecological modeling to predict the effects of management actions on populations of interest.

Current Projects

- Multispecies adaptive management in Delaware Bay

- Incidental take and endangered species recovery

- Piping plover population viability

- White tailed deer and coyote management in south Alabama

- Grassland bird habitat management in the East Gulf Coastal Plain

- Sea-level and endangered species conservation in the North West Hawaiian Islands

- American Black Duck integrated habitat management

Graduate Students

Alyssa Butler – working on the Delaware Bay adaptive management project

Available Positions

Black Duck integrated habitat and population management – Post-Doctoral Fellow

Recent Publications

McGowan, C.P., J.E. Hines, J.D. Nichols, J.E. Lyons, D.R. Smith, K. S. Kalasz, L.J. Niles, A.D. Dey, N.A. Clark, P.W. Atkinson, C.D.T. Minton, and W. Kendall. 2011. Demographic consequences of migratory stopover: linking red knot survival to horseshoe crab spawning abundance. Ecosphere 2: art 69.

McGowan, C.P., M. C. Runge, M. A. Larson, 2011. Incorporating parametric uncertainty into population viability models. Biological Conservation 144, 1400-1408. [R-Code webpage]

McGowan, C.P., M.R. Ryan, M.C. Runge, J.J. Millspaugh, J. Cochrane, 2011. The role of demographic compensation theory in incidental take assessments for endangered species. Biological Conservation, in press.

McGowan, C.P., D.R. Smith, J. Sweka, et al. 2011. Multispecies modeling for adaptive management of horseshoe crabs and red knots in the Delaware Bay. Natural Resource Modeling, in press.

McGowan, C. P., and M. R. Ryan. 2010. Arguments for using population models in incidental take assessments for endangered species. Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management 1: 183-188.

McGowan, C. P., and M. R. Ryan. 2009, A quantitative framework to evaluate incidental take and endangered species population viability. Biological Conservation, 142: 3128–3136.

McGowan, C. P., J. J. Millspaugh, M. R. Ryan, K. C. Cruse, and G. A. Pavelka. 2009. Estimating survival of precocial chicks during the pre-fledging period using a catch-curve method and age based count data Journal of Field Ornithology 80: 79-87.

Links

USGS Cooperative Research Units

Alabama Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit

School of Forestry and Wildlife Science

Auburn University